Pauline Rafferty | Aberystwyth University (original) (raw)

Papers by Pauline Rafferty

Page 1. 1 DIACHRONIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN TROUBLES FICTION: A STUDY IN MODELS AND METHODS. Pauline ... more Page 1. 1 DIACHRONIC TRANSFORMATIONS IN TROUBLES FICTION: A STUDY IN MODELS AND METHODS. Pauline Rafferty, MA(Hons), M.Sc. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2008 Page 2. 2 Abstract ...

Tendencias De Investigacion En Organizacion Del Conocimiento Trends in Knowledge Organization Research 2003 Isbn 84 7800 709 1 Pags 243 252, 2003

International Journal of the Book, 2009

New Review of Information and Library Research, 2001

L'article rapporte les résultats d'un projet de recherche sur le contenu des af... more L'article rapporte les résultats d'un projet de recherche sur le contenu des affiches de communication et de propagande émanant du Ministère de l'Information et destinées au public anglais durant la deuxième guerre mondiale. Les relations existant entre information et propagande sont ...

Journal of Documentation, 2011

... Bookmark & share. The Reviewers. Pauline Rafferty, University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth... more ... Bookmark & share. The Reviewers. Pauline Rafferty, University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth, UK. RR. 2011/3. Review Subject: Knowledge Representation in the Social Semantic Web. Weller, Katrin. Publisher Name: De Gruyter Saur. Place of Publication: Berlin. Publication Year: ...

Proceedings of the second international symposium on Information interaction in context - IIiX '08, 2008

Creative professionals search for digital music to accompany moving images using interactive info... more Creative professionals search for digital music to accompany moving images using interactive information retrieval systems run by music publishers and record companies. This research-in-progress investigates creative professionals and intermediaries communication processes and information seeking and use behaviour with a view to making recommendations to information retrieval systems builders about the relative importance of content and contextual factors. A communications model

Crowd-sourced participative labelling of digital images is generally based on paradigmatic approa... more Crowd-sourced participative labelling of digital images is generally based on paradigmatic approaches to concept analysis and interpretation in the form of tagging; the novelty of this study is its exploration of syntagmatic approaches to labelling in the form of story-telling.

The purpose of this research is to describe the development of an indexing template to guide the ... more The purpose of this research is to describe the development of an indexing template to guide the indexing of images using keywords. The template is designed to be used for indexing the
image collection held at The Children’s Society.

A facet matrix based on analysis of existing studies was used to
identify the most popular user query facets from user studies in the literature. A total of 33 archivists were surveyed regarding indexing practice and indexing wish-lists. The results of these investigative activities were synthesised to produce an indexing template. The results of this study suggest that indexing general entities and activities could be
more comprehensive than is currently the case. A practical indexing template is proposed for organisations wishing to index image collections.

This paper aims to report a small-scale study that investigated attitudes to open source library ... more This paper aims to report a small-scale study that investigated attitudes to open source library management systems (LMS)s in UK higher education libraries. The study sought to establish
why the sector has been slow to adopt this technology, and how attitudes towards it in UK universities might change in the future. A quantitative online questionnaire was sent to all 181 libraries within the UK higher education sector and received a response rate of 46.4 per cent. The questionnaire was followed by qualitative telephone interviews with five selected professionals.

UK higher education libraries rely on peer feedback when choosing a LMS. With limited experience and a need for strong commercial support given uncertainty about staffing in the present financial climate, HE librarians are reluctant to choose open source LMSs. Participants also demonstrated a lack of motivation to change from current LMSs, suggesting limited adoption of alternatives in the near future. A higher number of questionnaire respondents reported considering adopting an open source LMS than in Adamson et al.; however, this may be due to open source advocates being more likely to participate.

Drawing on Adamson’s survey as a starting point, this study enriches the body of knowledge on open source LMSs by reporting and reflecting on the results of a survey and set of
interviews with higher education information professionals. It adds to the small but growing literature in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ knowledge and use of social networking sites a... more The purpose of this paper is to investigate users’ knowledge and use of social networking sites and folksonomies to discover if social tagging and folksonomies, within the area of independent music, aid in its information retrieval and discovery. The sites examined in this project are MySpace, Lastfm, Pandora and Allmusic. In addition, the ways in which independent record labels utilise social networking sites for promotion are investigated. Three groups of participants were surveyed using questionnaires. These groups were music concert attendees, people who responded to online postings to social networking sites, and independent record companies. In addition interviews were held with digital music experts.

The results suggest that respondents use social networking sites for music discovery but are not generally aware of folksonomic approaches to music discovery. When users do use and contribute to the folksonomy, most respondents were found to tag for personal retrieval purposes rather than attempting to aid the retrieval purposes of the population of site users as a whole. The four record labels unanimously agreed that social networking sites are having a major impact on independent music discovery. Digital distribution has a major impact on independent record labels. It facilitates discovery but at the same time digital distribution creates new promotional dilemmas.

The project is small scale but the research area is a relatively novel one, and the results are interesting enough to share more generally in the hope that this project will stimulate further research activity in this area.

The purpose of this article is to explore some of the biases that affect the classification of We... more The purpose of this article is to explore some of the biases that affect the classification of Welsh art materials and to examine how they are being perpetuated both in library classification systems and beyond. A discourse analysis, in the loosest sense, was used to explore the research topic. Using a hermeneutic and interpretative approach facilitated an examination of some of the tacit assumptions and conceptions that shape the way in which Welsh art is spoken about, thought about, and generally represented. The paper explores biases in the classification of Welsh art in relation to the analytical categories of dispersion, dilettantism, and depreciation. Evidence is drawn from three examples of discursive practice: the application of Library of Congress subject headings in the library in Howard Gardens; the Salisbury Collection classification scheme at Cardiff University; and the descriptive text taken from the web site of the National Museum, Cardiff. The paper concludes with a discussion of the nature of classification, and the role of the information professional as active player in the practice of representation in and through various methods of classification.

The paper contributes to the literature of classification bias. The focus on the specific rather than the more general biases both adds to Olsen and Schlegl’s work and reflects a
sensitivity to the subject matter itself. The paper also contributes to the literature at a methodological level in its use of a hermeneutic and interpretative analytical framework to explore representation in classification.

This study aims to consider the value of user-assigned image tags by comparing the facets that ar... more This study aims to consider the value of user-assigned image tags by comparing the facets that are represented in image tags with those that are present in image queries to see if there is a similarity in the way that users describe and search for images

A sample dataset was created by downloading a selection of images and associated tags from Flickr, the online photo-sharing web site. The tags were categorised using image facets from Shatford’s matrix, which has been widely used in previous research into image indexing and retrieval. The facets present in the image tags were then compared with the results of previous research into image queries.

The results reveal that there are broad similarities between the facets present in image tags and queries, with people and objects being the most common facet, followed by location. However, the results also show that there are differences in the level of specificity between tags and queries, with image tags containing more generic terms and image queries consisting of more specific terms. The study concludes that users do describe and search for images using similar image facets, but that measures to close the gap between specific queries and generic tags would improve the value of user tags in indexing image collections.

Research into tagging has tended to focus on textual resources with less research into non-textual documents. In particular, little research has been undertaken into how user
tags compare to the terms used in search queries, particularly in the context of digital images.

Knowledge Organization, 38(4), pp. 283-298 2011

The term "tagging" is widely used for the assigning of terms to information objects in user-drive... more The term "tagging" is widely used for the assigning of terms to information objects in user-driven websites, although a cursory examination of such websites suggests that the communicative functions undertaken by taggers are not always driven by concerns about inter-subjective informative communication. At the heart of the debate about social indexing are issues relating to meaning and interpretation. Even where the intention is to assign informative tags, there is an issue about the relationship between the modality of an information object and its subsequent interpretation in historical time. This paper tests a model of image modality using four test images, which are interpreted and tagged by a group of distance learner students in the Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University. The results are described, and the implications are discussed. Overall, this limited exercise suggests that the modality model might be of some use in categorizing images with an image IR system. The exercise also suggests that leaving annotations and tagging entirely to users could lead to information loss over time. Finally, the exercise suggests that developing a retrieval tool using genre and the intertextual nature of multimedia objects might lead to the construction of rich, knowledge based systems.

‘Epistemology, Literary Genre and Knowledge Organisation Systems’, X Congress of the ISKO Spanish Chapter, Ferrol, June 30 – July 1, 2011

This theoretical paper considers genre as the epistemological foundation for fiction retrieval sy... more This theoretical paper considers genre as the epistemological foundation for fiction retrieval systems, in particular the relationship between the individual work and generic systems. It explores the characteristics of literary genres, and how they are determined, and examines ontological and historical aspects of genre. It considers the relationship between historically contingent generic transformations and literary genre as categorising principle. Finally, it offers some suggestions for future design of fiction KOS.

Aslib Proceedings, Jan 1, 2007

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine three models of subject indexing (i.e... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine three models of subject indexing (i.e. expert-led indexing, author-generated indexing, and user-orientated indexing); and to compare and contrast two user-orientated indexing approaches (i.e. the theoretically-based Democratic Indexing project, and Flickr, a working system for describing photographs).

The approach to examining Flickr and Democratic Indexing is evaluative. The limitations of Flickr are described and examples are provided. The Democratic Indexing approach, which the authors believe offers a method of marshalling a “free” user-indexed archive to provide useful retrieval functions, is described. The examination of both Flickr and the Democratic Indexing approach suggests that, despite Shirky’s claim of philosophical paradigm shifting for social tagging, there is a residing doubt amongst information professionals that self-organising systems can work without there being some element of control and some form of “representative authority”.

Knowledge organization, Jan 1, 2001

Foucault began ‘The Order of Things’ by quoting a passage from Borges, on the monstrous classific... more Foucault began ‘The Order of Things’ by quoting a passage from Borges, on the monstrous classification of animals in

‘a certain Chinese encyclopaedia’. In this monstrous classification: ‘animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification. (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies.’ In the wonderment of this taxonomy, the thing we apprehend in one great leap, the thing that, by means of the fable, is demonstrated as the exotic charm of another system of thought, is the limitation of our own, the stark impossibility of thinking that.’ (Foucault, 1974, p. xv)

Foucault argued that within this taxonomy what really ‘transgresses the boundaries of all imagination, of all possible thought, is simply that alphabetical series (a, b, c, d) which links each of these categories to all the others.’ (Foucault, 1974, p. xvi) The use of the alphabetical symbols suggests that relationships exist or should exist between the categories thus linked. For Foucault the other 'monstrous quality’ running through Borges’ taxonomy is the fact that these categories could only exist in and through language. They could not be juxtaposed in any other sense, in any other place, in any material site. Borges’ monstrous encyclopaedic classification is an important starting point for Foucault in his investigations into the historical contingency of discourses of order, power and control. Foucault’s investigations of the operations of power through localised institutions and practices are the starting point of this paper which explores the order and juxtaposition of ideal concepts through the discursive practice of classification schemes.

ASHGATE the problems of meaning and interpretation pauline rafferty and rob hidderley ... Rob Hid... more ASHGATE the problems of meaning and interpretation pauline rafferty and rob hidderley ... Rob Hidderley Rob .Hiddertey worked 'in indus;' - 35 KIE nation .:id database manage--o His interest in the problems of scaring and rCinewng rmirtimecfia 'information A -member of the British ...

Journal of documentation, Jan 1, 2008

Information services & use, Jan 1, 1997